Summertime Travels

Jared and I flew with the kids to South Carolina on May 30th.  We rented a car there so we would be able to drive down to Florida.  This gal needed a little beach time at the ocean (the gulf served us well :).  The kids traveled great on the plane and in the car. It was pleasantly uneventful- except for Caroline throwing up in Chick-fil-A on our way to Latisha's house and lots of rain.
We went to the beach three times while we were there- the evening we arrived and the next two days.  When we went in the evening we were a little worried about the weather, but it made for some amazing skies.  The pictures just don't do it justice.  Caroline had a great time playing in the sand and water- a common theme for her- and we all enjoyed our time at the beach and with Latisha's family.
We drove back up to South Carolina on Thursday and I was able to attend Justin's graduation from Berea High School- it brought back some fun memories.
Friday morning Jared, Dad, and I went on a bike ride on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Then that evening Jared and I went on a nice date downtown before he left early Saturday morning to fly back so he could get ready for scout camp.
The next week more of the Leckie clan descended on mom and dad's house.  Adam and Holley arrived with their girls- sans air conditioning in the car and then Latisha arrived with Kaylee and Brandon.  We missed having Emily and her crew there.
While they were there we went camping at Table Rock and a large group of us hiked to the top.  It was rough but we made it!  I carried Ben up and Adam helped me by carrying him down.  Much harder to go down with a baby in the carrier if you ask me. We enjoyed the lake there and had a good time- especially with the thunderstorm the first night.
We camped Tuesday-Thursday.  Thursday evening after we got back we played some minute to win it games with the whole crew.  Everyone seemed to have fun and everyone participated.  All in all we played lots of games, ate lots of food, and just enjoyed being with family.

St. George- Take III

Jared had to go down and fix a few things on the temple so we decided to make a family trip out of it.  We stayed at a hotel right on the main street there.  We played in the water lots and we went to Sand Hollow and played in the sand and water there.  Chris, Jamie, and Scott were all there, too.  We had a fun time!

Ben at 3 months and Caroline at 23 months

Since we're almost to 4 months I better post this one quick!
I did actually take the pictures on the right day, but, as usual, I haven't taken the time to sit down and blog about our little guy.

-He's such a happy little fellow. He really loves any attention and looks so badly like he wants to talk to you.
- Caroline has started being much more clingy since he showed up and it makes it a little tricky to get things done.
- At three months old he was sleeping pretty well- only waking up once in the night to eat.
- Is a great traveler.  He and his carseat are best napping buddies.  We drove to Colorado and this little guy stopped once to eat- he slept almost the entire time.
-  He won't take a bottle anymore.  I waited too long between tries.
- Is still spitting up pretty massive quantities, but the respiratory sounds are getting better.

We love our little Ben!

Caroline is still our sweet girl.  We decided to try to let her sleep in the toddler bed that's been her room for months now and it was no big deal for her.  I was worried for nothing. 

She still doesn't really say many intelligible words- but I feel like she adds words to her vocabulary- it's just pretty slow.

She often plays well by herself, but has gotten a little bit more demanding of time since little brother arrived on the scene.

Has almost all her molars in.

Thinks it's great fun to run away from mom when I say we need to do something, ie- change her diaper, put on her shoes, etc...